Says one station executive who is airing the 30 Rockreruns: “If these shows don’t resonate with audiences,it won’t be because of a lack of effort on the part of thestations or syndicators.”

The campaign kicked off in early May, and the last messageis a countdown spot, set to Queen’s “We Will RockYou,” that lets viewers know when to watch. The phasesrolled out over fi ve months, says Donna Mills, senior VPof marketing, communications and affiliate relations forNBCUniversal Domestic Television Distribution.

The campaign started with highlight clips from 30 Rockfeaturing the show’s entire cast and then became morespecific, introducing every character with originalfootage shot last spring with the main cast members.Somehow, most of Tracy Morgan’s spots involve himlifting his shirt for no good reason.

NBCU also provided stations with a custom contentmanagement system (CMS) from DG Entertainmentthat allows local promo managers to quickly and easilycut their own promos based on a keyword search.For example, if a promotions manager wants to createa promo around “pizza,” he or she just needs to enterthe keyword into the system to come up with plentyof relevant clips.

When NBCU started looking for promoters to assistthe syndicator with the show’s launch, it specificallyasked them to provide a CMS that NBCU could thenprovide to stations.

DG Entertainment created the CMS more than 10years ago, when Sony first sold Seinfeld into syndication.

“When Sony was launching Seinfeld, we were contractedto go through all 154 episodes and catalogthem,” says Robbie Davis, DG Entertainment presidentand CEO. “We ended up with 11,000 clips, so we createda database of clips described in unique ways sothat someone could go through and easily find clipswhen they were needed.”

Since then, the CMS has evolved with every showthat DG has worked on; DG has created CMS databasesfor NBCU’s The Office as well as Warner Bros.’Sex and the City, Friends and Looney Tunes, and more.

“30 Rock is the newest CMS, and it has more featuresthan any of its predecessors,” Davis says. “30 Rock isdefinitely the gold standard at this point.”

30 Rock will simultaneously premiere on ComedyCentral, where it will air weeknights at 7 and 7:30p.m. ET, and on Tribune’s WGN America. Both cablenetworks have crafted their own promo campaigns forthe show.

Like NBCU, Comedy Central also had access to thecast, and its marketing staff wrote fresh promos for castmembers Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Jane Krakowski, JackMcBrayer and Morgan.

“We certainly recognized that when you have a showwith such incredible actors like this one, the best wayto promote the show is by getting access to the cast,”says Walter Levitt, Comedy Central executive VP ofmarketing. “We all are already such fans of the showand its cast members that we very quickly got to ideasinvolving the cast. They are really the core of whatmakes the show hilarious.”

Note that Morgan also is called on to raise his shirtin Comedy Central’s promos.

WGN America is focusing much of its promotionalefforts on a social media campaign that includes Facebookand Twitter.

“We are taking the point of view of being a fan ourselves,and creating a fan community,” says Josh Richman,WGN America VP of marketing.

Expectations for 30 Rock’s ratings performance range.“It’s hoped that it will be as successful as The Officewas,” says Bill Carroll, VP of programming for KatzTelevision Group Programming.

Even that level of performance—and The Office isconsidered a mediocre performer in off-net syndication—will be tough for 30 Rock to reach. The show wassold to stations on an all-barter basis while the countrywas still deep in recession. Due to that, stations can’tafford to air the show in prime access time slots, one oftheir most lucrative advertising times. In most markets,30 Rock will air in late fringe, which is less visible, lesswatched and less expensive.